The Lost Art of the Mix Tape
July 31, 2008 Filed in: Personal
I love my iPod. Don’t get me wrong. It’s amazing that
one can walk around with tiny versions of his entire
CD collection, all-accessible at the turn of a wheel.
It’s neat. It’s convenient. But, its advent has
murdered one of out greatest pastimes: the mix tape.
The Philips Company introduced the “compact cassette” to the United States in 1964. It was originally intended for data storage and mainly “dictation” recordings. As fidelity improved, so did the quality and capacity for cassette tapes.
I remember first seeing tapes in the early 80’s. My dad would bring home boxes of these things. Most of them contained meeting notes from work. On one, he somehow dubbed Sgt. Pepper and listened to occasionally on trips. It became a convenient way to listen to vinyl.
Eventually, cassettes were king. I think 1988 was the heyday, but I could be wrong. By ’88, the walkman (a portable, hi-fi cassette player) was just about everywhere. Tape players were common in cars. Even though the compact disc was available, the technology was still a bit too expensive for most.
I remember making my first mix tape in high school, right around the early 90’s. I wanted to listen to a bunch of music that my brother had brought home from college. I didn’t like all of it, just a few of the remix cuts…all of which was on vinyl. So, I made a mix tape. It consisted of a bunch of 12” remixes, some tracks from Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, and a few live cuts that I had taken off of MTV’s 120 Minutes. I played it into the ground.
Up until CD’s were more prevalent, the mix tape was still quite an effort. Hi-speed dubbing decks were available, but those were only really good for copying entire programs of audio. In order to get the master tape in the right spot, you had to REW and FF quite a bit until you found the song break. It was OK for a few tunes, but filling a 90 minute tape by hand like this took true commitment.
The CD changed the mix tape. Since the CD allowed instant access to any track on an audio program, there was no waiting to cue it up. And, if you wanted to have three or four tracks in a row from the same CD on a mix tape, you could program your CD player to play those songs in a particular order. Bam, instant mix.
With the ease of digital access, the mix tape became less of an archiving tool and more of a means of expression. They were particularly helpful if I wanted to ask someone out. The tape never sealed the deal, but it did set the mood. A given selection of songs can tell someone how you feel.
The only thing better than making a mix tape is receiving a mix tape. I learned quickly that if you’ve had a great first date with a young lady and she slips a mix tape under your dorm room door the next day, you might want to ask her out again. And, if that mix tape has “Moondance” by Van Morrison on it, you really need to stop what you’re doing, pick up the phone, and ask her out again right there. When dealing with tapes, it’s also good to remember that in the early 90’s cell phones were, at best, car phones. You’d need to use a land line to score a second date.
With a good work flow, you could have a mix tape making process down to about two hours. It took a little planning, but it was definitely possible.
Something about the instantaneousness of iTunes playlists makes the current state of mixology not so romantic. Select. Drag. Drop. Play. Yawn.
Playlists are cavernous. However much data can fit on the iPod is how long they can be. Gone is the 90 minute limit. Sure, you can smart playlist a 90 minute limit, but what’s the fun in that.
Every month, I make a new playlist for my iPod. It’s the equivalent of changing out a 20 disc changer, I guess. I’ll usually select whole albums from my favorite artists. Then, I’ll select some featured tracks that I might enjoy. All in all the list ends up being at least a day long. I do enjoy listening to my flavors-of-the-month. But, something is certainly lost in translation. There’s very little focus to the collection.
I do appreciate the newer iPod’s capacity for album artwork. But, the other half of the fun with mix tapes was the packaging. I used to make all kinds of track list inserts for these things, depending on the occasion. Rarely was the supplied card stock used.
Most of the time, when stereo cassette decks, VCR decks, and televisions were connected to the same home stereo amplifier/unit, interesting segues could be inserted into the common mix tape play out. After three or four songs, it wouldn’t be hard to dub in some of Yoda’s wisdom, or some of HAL’s laments. That always made for an interesting listening experience.
Now-a-days, because the playlists are also visual on the iPod, it often doesn’t make sense to include an audio clip unless the video is there, too. That’s really difficult to make work well. As a result, most of my playlists are music only…very few sound effects and movie dialog clips. Not like the old days.
The compromise for me is having themed playlists. Rather than have a great mix tape, I have some great meditation playlists, morning playlists, or “winding down” playlists, metal playlists, or even block party playlists (with a lot of Motown). On a few occasions, I’ll make a mix CD or two, but those are really just truncated playlists. I have a few “master CD’s” that my close friends have aggrandized, but they don’t get played as much as they would have if they were on a cassette.
Do I think we should go back to cassettes? Hardly. The iPod is far too convenient for that. Not being a single guy, I don’t worry about using mix tapes to ask people out anymore. My wife appreciates the “Acoustic Foo” mix (as well as the many other playlists I’ve made for her) just fine. But, I wonder how kids now-a-days can possibly compete with the subtleties of the perfectly crafted mix tape. Maybe that’s what texting is for.
So, what are the elements of a good mix tape? Well, for one, I think the basic length should be 90 minutes. That gives you two 45 minute programs. Pacing is important. You’ll want to make sure your songs have varying tempos. Tempo conveys mood. You should have a good mix of fast, mid, and slow songs.
Personally, I like to come out of the gate with a relatively mellow song. Most of the time, when I’m getting into the car to listen to a mix tape, I’ll start the car, back out, and not get cruising until at least a song into it. I like to pepper the mix with solid singles, great deep cuts, instrumental tunes, and decent remixes.
For kicks, I made a mix as I wrote this. I made it in iTunes. It clocks in at 1.4 hours, which would fit just right on a 90 minute cassette, allowing for flips. This mix would be mainly for my enjoyment, but it also would work fine if other people were around while it was on (there’s not a lot that’s offensive, too heavy, or just not right with these selections).
Anyway, I’m just thinking about the glory days of the mix tape. They were fun.
The Philips Company introduced the “compact cassette” to the United States in 1964. It was originally intended for data storage and mainly “dictation” recordings. As fidelity improved, so did the quality and capacity for cassette tapes.
I remember first seeing tapes in the early 80’s. My dad would bring home boxes of these things. Most of them contained meeting notes from work. On one, he somehow dubbed Sgt. Pepper and listened to occasionally on trips. It became a convenient way to listen to vinyl.
Eventually, cassettes were king. I think 1988 was the heyday, but I could be wrong. By ’88, the walkman (a portable, hi-fi cassette player) was just about everywhere. Tape players were common in cars. Even though the compact disc was available, the technology was still a bit too expensive for most.
I remember making my first mix tape in high school, right around the early 90’s. I wanted to listen to a bunch of music that my brother had brought home from college. I didn’t like all of it, just a few of the remix cuts…all of which was on vinyl. So, I made a mix tape. It consisted of a bunch of 12” remixes, some tracks from Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing’s Shocking, and a few live cuts that I had taken off of MTV’s 120 Minutes. I played it into the ground.
Up until CD’s were more prevalent, the mix tape was still quite an effort. Hi-speed dubbing decks were available, but those were only really good for copying entire programs of audio. In order to get the master tape in the right spot, you had to REW and FF quite a bit until you found the song break. It was OK for a few tunes, but filling a 90 minute tape by hand like this took true commitment.
The CD changed the mix tape. Since the CD allowed instant access to any track on an audio program, there was no waiting to cue it up. And, if you wanted to have three or four tracks in a row from the same CD on a mix tape, you could program your CD player to play those songs in a particular order. Bam, instant mix.
With the ease of digital access, the mix tape became less of an archiving tool and more of a means of expression. They were particularly helpful if I wanted to ask someone out. The tape never sealed the deal, but it did set the mood. A given selection of songs can tell someone how you feel.
The only thing better than making a mix tape is receiving a mix tape. I learned quickly that if you’ve had a great first date with a young lady and she slips a mix tape under your dorm room door the next day, you might want to ask her out again. And, if that mix tape has “Moondance” by Van Morrison on it, you really need to stop what you’re doing, pick up the phone, and ask her out again right there. When dealing with tapes, it’s also good to remember that in the early 90’s cell phones were, at best, car phones. You’d need to use a land line to score a second date.
With a good work flow, you could have a mix tape making process down to about two hours. It took a little planning, but it was definitely possible.
Something about the instantaneousness of iTunes playlists makes the current state of mixology not so romantic. Select. Drag. Drop. Play. Yawn.
Playlists are cavernous. However much data can fit on the iPod is how long they can be. Gone is the 90 minute limit. Sure, you can smart playlist a 90 minute limit, but what’s the fun in that.
Every month, I make a new playlist for my iPod. It’s the equivalent of changing out a 20 disc changer, I guess. I’ll usually select whole albums from my favorite artists. Then, I’ll select some featured tracks that I might enjoy. All in all the list ends up being at least a day long. I do enjoy listening to my flavors-of-the-month. But, something is certainly lost in translation. There’s very little focus to the collection.
I do appreciate the newer iPod’s capacity for album artwork. But, the other half of the fun with mix tapes was the packaging. I used to make all kinds of track list inserts for these things, depending on the occasion. Rarely was the supplied card stock used.
Most of the time, when stereo cassette decks, VCR decks, and televisions were connected to the same home stereo amplifier/unit, interesting segues could be inserted into the common mix tape play out. After three or four songs, it wouldn’t be hard to dub in some of Yoda’s wisdom, or some of HAL’s laments. That always made for an interesting listening experience.
Now-a-days, because the playlists are also visual on the iPod, it often doesn’t make sense to include an audio clip unless the video is there, too. That’s really difficult to make work well. As a result, most of my playlists are music only…very few sound effects and movie dialog clips. Not like the old days.
The compromise for me is having themed playlists. Rather than have a great mix tape, I have some great meditation playlists, morning playlists, or “winding down” playlists, metal playlists, or even block party playlists (with a lot of Motown). On a few occasions, I’ll make a mix CD or two, but those are really just truncated playlists. I have a few “master CD’s” that my close friends have aggrandized, but they don’t get played as much as they would have if they were on a cassette.
Do I think we should go back to cassettes? Hardly. The iPod is far too convenient for that. Not being a single guy, I don’t worry about using mix tapes to ask people out anymore. My wife appreciates the “Acoustic Foo” mix (as well as the many other playlists I’ve made for her) just fine. But, I wonder how kids now-a-days can possibly compete with the subtleties of the perfectly crafted mix tape. Maybe that’s what texting is for.
So, what are the elements of a good mix tape? Well, for one, I think the basic length should be 90 minutes. That gives you two 45 minute programs. Pacing is important. You’ll want to make sure your songs have varying tempos. Tempo conveys mood. You should have a good mix of fast, mid, and slow songs.
Personally, I like to come out of the gate with a relatively mellow song. Most of the time, when I’m getting into the car to listen to a mix tape, I’ll start the car, back out, and not get cruising until at least a song into it. I like to pepper the mix with solid singles, great deep cuts, instrumental tunes, and decent remixes.
For kicks, I made a mix as I wrote this. I made it in iTunes. It clocks in at 1.4 hours, which would fit just right on a 90 minute cassette, allowing for flips. This mix would be mainly for my enjoyment, but it also would work fine if other people were around while it was on (there’s not a lot that’s offensive, too heavy, or just not right with these selections).
- Tom Petty – “Wildflowers”
- Train – “She’s on Fire”
- David Bowie – “Rebel Rebel”
- Thom Yorke – “Atoms for Peace (Four Tet Remix)"
- Bruce Springsteen – “Radio Nowhere”
- Foo Fighters – “Times Like These”
- Toad the Wet Sprocket – “Windmills”
- Dave Matthews Band – “When the World Ends”
- T. Rex – “Mambo Sun”
- Tomoyasu Hotei – “Battle without Honor or Humanity”
- U2 – “Beautiful Day”
- The Posies – “Solar Sister”
- Elton John – “Bennie and the Jets”
- Radiohead – “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
- R.E.M. – “Cuyahoga”
- Miles Davis – “It’s About That Time (Evolution of the Groove Remix)”
- Pete Yorn – “Ice Age”
- The Killers – “Sam’s Town (Abbey Road Version)”
- Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
- Third Eye Blind – “Motorcycle Drive By”
- Justin Timberlake – “(Another Song) All Over Again”
Anyway, I’m just thinking about the glory days of the mix tape. They were fun.